Dan Wetzel - Epic Athletes: Lionel Messi

W ITH HIS TALENTED RIGHT FOOT, Lionel Messi collected the pass. He was standing on the FC Barcelona side of midfield, maybe sixty yards from the net he was determined to score upon.

No one else inside Camp Nou, the famed stadium of the Barcelona Football Club in Spain, shared Lionels belief that a goal was possible at that moment. Not any of the tens of thousands of cheering fans. Not any of Barcelonas coaches. Certainly, none of Barcelonas opponents, the players on the Getafe Football Club. And not even his teammates could have fathomed it, even though theyd been taught while practicing against Lionel to expect the unexpected.

How could they think a goal was possible? How could anyone? Lionel was by the right sideline in the middle of the field, with two defenders closing quickly on him and another four or five, plus a goalkeeper, waiting between him and the net.

The expected play, the simple play, even the proper soccer play, was for Lionel to find an open teammate nearby, then make a short, crisp, accurate pass in an effort to control possession and slowly build an attack.

That isnt how Lionel Messi played soccer, though. That isnt what brought him here to Spain, on the other side of the Atlantic from his birthplace of Argentina. That isnt what made him a budding international star at just nineteen years old, one of the youngest top division players in all of Europe. That isnt what got him into the starting lineup for Barcelona, or Bara, as its many fans call it, one of the biggest, richest, and winningest clubs in all the world.

From the time he was a small child, pushed by his maternal grandmother, Celia, to play with the older kids in the streets of his native Rosario, Argentina, Lionel had learned to dribble through crowds of outstretched legs and charging defenders.

It wasnt just his footwork that impressed spectators, although that had always been mesmerizing. Onlookers used to say it appeared as if the ball was stitched to his foot, or at least attached on a string, when he dribbled. The description made sense considering as a kid hed entertain crowds on a street corner by juggling a ball hundreds of times in a row, tapping it into the air over and over without it ever hitting the ground. He was so good at it, hed leave a hat out to collect donations. Stunned adults would drop coins or bills into it out of appreciation, with Lionel earning valuable money for his working-class family.

But it was more than physical talent that drove Lionel Messi. It was the way he could, in a flash, think of what to do and where to go to escape a defense and push the ball toward a goal. It was mental. It was creative. It was pure soccer. It seemed impossible.

Especially for a guy whod been considered undersized his whole life, and told as a young kid that he was too short and too small to be much of a player. At least that is what they said until he whipped by or around or through a defense and scored again. Lionel, as all opponents would learn, even bigger and older ones, was virtually unstoppable. He was this quick, relentless pest, they all agreed.

La Pulga, they named him in Argentina.

The Flea.

Lionel had come to Spain at just thirteen years old. In spite of his size, his talent was so intriguing that Bara was willing to spend considerable resources to move him and his family to another continent so hed play for their youth teams. Its common for European football clubs to recruit players like Lionel at a young age, signing them to their junior team.

As part of Lionels arrangement with Bara, the team paid for the medicine he neededmedicine his parents couldnt affordto help him overcome a growth hormone disorder. Without the treatments, Lionels doctors in Argentina believed he wouldnt reach five feet tall, a height that would make a professional soccer career unlikely.

Now, in 2007, facing off against Getafe, he stood five foot seven, still on the shorter side, and presumably not too much of a problem for his defenders. Little did they realize hed figured out how to turn his height into an advantage. He was quick, with a low center of gravity that allowed him to shift his weight on a dime. While bigger players still tried to muscle him and knock him down, he could often slip out of the way and leave them foolishly grasping at air. He was like a ghost, disappearing into space, usually with the ball.

Those two charging Getafe defenders were about to learn that lesson the hard way, in front of a packed stadium, a television audience, and the now forever replays on YouTube.

He trapped the pass with his right foot and then with his left, lightly flipped the ball into the air and over the probing leg of the first defender. It wasnt a traditional touch. The ball actually rotated in the air and then, due to all the spin Lionel put on it, magically landed in almost the same spot where it started. That was exactly where Lionel wanted it. As skill moves go, it seemed to defy physics and thus left the defender baffled.

Without hesitation, Lionel slid himself sideways to avoid a collision and then tapped the ball forward and took two steps toward the midfield line. By that point, the other nearby defender was coming in fast, so Lionel flicked it left, not forward and pushed the ball between the legs of the unsuspecting defender. In soccer, its called a nutmeg. It rarely works at the professional level, where everyone is talented and well trained. It was perfectly executed here.

Now Lionel had some open grass in front of him. He dug in and began sprinting down the pitch, still in full control of the ball. The two defenders gave chase, one even had a good angle on him, but Lionel was much too fast to be caught, even though he still had to dribble, which normally slows a player down. The Camp Nou crowd began to murmur and then cheer in anticipation of what was possibly to come. The television announcers voice picked up a measure of excitement after the nutmeg.

Oh, brilliant skill from Lionel Messi, he said.

Within an instant, Lionel had left the two defenders in the dust, and as he approached the Getafe goal box, two more came up to converge on him and stop the play. Despite traveling forward at full speed, Lionel was able to tap the ball left, past one defender, shift his body left to avoid contact, then tap the ball back right to avoid the next defender while managing to cut forward and charging, with the ball, into the goal box. Hed somehow, someway split through them. Now each of the first four defenders were harmlessly behind him.

But with one more threat avoided, another emerged. Suddenly, the Getafe goalkeeper was barreling toward him, focused on knocking the ball away and slowing the elusive Lionel Messi down. Lionel had other ideas. Inches before crashing into the keeper, he put the ball on his left foot and shimmied his hips as if he were going to move left toward the front of the goal. As the goalkeeper moved that way, Lionel deftly cut back to the right. The goalkeeper flopped on the ground, helpless to stop Lionel.